Nearly twenty years ago, literary historian Lawrence Buell set out tounderstand how the town of Concord, Massachusetts remembered Henry DavidThoreau. He discovered that, "Little has been written about thephenomenon of canonization itself: that is, the rituals of remembrancethrough which those regarded for whatever reason as literary heroesbecome enshrined." Little has changed in the intervening two decades.This panel seeks to correct that oversight by examining the connectionsbetween authors and tourists conjured at historical sites dedicated tothe memory of American writers. What stories do these sites tell abouttheir authors? How do literary history sites reconcile public interestin authors' fictional worlds with the historical exigencies of thoseauthors' lived realities? Do literary history sites contribute to akind of vernacular canonization and, if so, how does that process relateto what we in the academy mean when we speak of a literary cannon?Keeping in mind the conference's larger theme of community connections,we are interested in papers that examine how the enshrinement ofliterary places gives meaning to their constituent communities.

We are particularly interested in the papers at the intersections ofliterary history, history of tourism, cultural geography, public historyand museum studies.

Please send, by January 15, inquiries or abstracts (no more than 500words) and CVs for consideration to Hilary LoweAmerican StudiesUniversity of Kansashilowe_at_ku.edu